scholarly journals Cognitive control in bilinguals: Advantages in Stimulus–Stimulus inhibition

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 610-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
HENRIKE K. BLUMENFELD ◽  
VIORICA MARIAN
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Simon Task ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Stimulus Features ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Language Profiles

Bilinguals have been shown to outperform monolinguals at suppressing task-irrelevant information and on overall speed during cognitive control tasks. Here, monolinguals’ and bilinguals’ performance was compared on two nonlinguistic tasks: a Stroop task (with perceptualStimulus–Stimulus conflictamong stimulus features) and a Simon task (withStimulus–Response conflict). Across two experiments testing bilinguals with different language profiles, bilinguals showed more efficient Stroop than Simon performance, relative to monolinguals, who showed fewer differences across the two tasks. Findings suggest that bilingualism may engage Stroop-type cognitive control mechanisms more than Simon-type mechanisms, likely due to increased Stimulus–Stimulus conflict during bilingual language processing. Findings are discussed in light of previous research on bilingual Stroop and Simon performance.

Conflict-Specific Effects of Accessory Stimuli on Cognitive Control in the Stroop Task and the Simon Task

2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Soutschek ◽  
Hermann J. Müller ◽  
Torsten Schubert
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Simon Task ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Relevant Stimulus ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Both the Stroop and the Simon paradigms are often used in research on cognitive control, however, there is evidence that dissociable control processes are involved in these tasks: While conflicts in the Stroop task may be resolved mainly by enhanced task-relevant stimulus processing, conflicts in the Simon task may be resolved rather by suppressing the influence of task-irrelevant information on response selection. In the present study, we show that these control mechanisms interact in different ways with the presentation of accessory stimuli. Accessory stimuli do not affect cognitive control in the Simon task, but they impair the efficiency of cross-trial control processes in the Stroop task. Our findings underline the importance of differentiating between different types of conflicts and mechanisms of cognitive control.

In Touch With the Simon Effect *The first two authors contributed equally.

2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Salzer ◽  
Daniela Aisenberg ◽  
Tal Oron-Gilad ◽  
Avishai Henik
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Simon Effect ◽  
Simon Task ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
New Information ◽  
Time Gap ◽  
Test Control

Cognitive control has been extensively studied using the auditory and visual modalities. In the current study, a tactile version of the Simon task was created in order to test control mechanisms in a modality that was less studied, to provide comparative and new information. A significant Simon effect – reaction time gap between congruent (i.e., stimulus and response in the same relative location) and incongruent (i.e., stimulus and response in opposite locations) stimuli – provided grounds to further examine both general and tactile-specific aspects of cognitive control in three experiments. By implementing a neutral condition and conducting sequential and distributional analysis, the present study: (a) supports two different independent mechanisms of cognitive control – reactive control and proactive control; (b) reveals facilitation and interference within the tactile Simon effect; and (c) proposes modality differences in activation and processing of the spatially driven stimulus-response association.

scholarly journals Relationship Between Language Dominance and Stimulus-Stimulus or Stimulus-Response Inhibition in Uyghur-Chinese Bilinguals with an Investigation of Speed-Accuracy Trade-Offs

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wu ◽  
Struys ◽  
Lochtman
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Monitoring Process ◽  
Response Task ◽  
Speed Accuracy

The effect of bilingualism on inhibition control is increasingly under ongoing exploration. The present study primarily investigated the effect of within bilingual factors (i.e., dominance types of Uyghur-Chinese bilinguals) on a Stimulus-Stimulus task (Flanker) and a Stimulus-Response task (Simon). We also compared the bilinguals' performance on each type of cognitive control task in respect to a possible trade-off between speed and accuracy. The findings showed no explicit differences on performance in response time or accuracy among balanced, L1-dominant and L2-dominant bilinguals but balanced bilinguals demonstrated a significant speed-accuracy trade-off in the overall context switching between non-conflict and conflict trials in both cognitive control tasks where monitoring process is highly demanded. Additionally, all bilinguals across all language dominance types showed a trade-off strategy in inhibition during a Stimulus-Stimulus conflict (flanker task). This evidence indicates that the differences of within bilinguals in cognitive control could lie in the monitoring process, while for all bilinguals, inhibition during a Stimulus-Stimulus conflict could be a major component in the mechanism of bilingual language processing.

scholarly journals Modulation of Conflict Processing by Theta-Range tACS over the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Lehr ◽  
Niklas Henneberg ◽  
Tarana Nigam ◽  
Walter Paulus ◽  
Andrea Antal
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Control Network ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Cognitive Control Network ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation

Behavioral response conflict arises in the color-word Stroop task and triggers the cognitive control network. Midfrontal theta-band oscillations correlate with adaptive control mechanisms during and after conflict resolution. In order to prove causality, in two experiments, we applied transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at 6 Hz to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during Stroop task performance. Sham stimulation served as a control in both experiments; 9.7 Hz tACS served as a nonharmonic alpha band control in the second experiment. We employed generalized linear mixed models for analysis of behavioral data. Accuracy remained unchanged by any type of active stimulation. Over both experiments, the Stroop effect (response time difference between congruent and incongruent trials) was reduced by 6 Hz stimulation as compared to sham, mainly in trials without prior conflict adaptation. Alpha tACS did not modify the Stroop effect. Theta tACS can both reduce the Stroop effect and modulate adaptive mechanisms of the cognitive control network, suggesting midfrontal theta oscillations as causally involved in cognitive control.

List-level control in the flanker task

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 1444-1459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie M Bugg ◽  
Corentin Gonthier
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Design Experiment ◽  
Potential Solution ◽  
Level Control ◽  
Established Method ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
First Time

Current theories posit multiple levels of cognitive control for resolving conflict, including list-level control: the global or proactive biasing of attention across a list of trials. However, to date, evidence for pure list-level control has largely been confined to the Stroop task. Our goals were twofold: (a) test the generality of theoretical accounts by seeking evidence for list-level control in the letter flanker task, using an established method involving diagnostic items, and investigating the conditions under which list-level control may and may not be observed and (b) develop and test a potential solution to the challenge of isolating list-level control in tasks with a relatively limited set of stimuli and responses such as arrow flanker. Our key findings were that list-level control was observed for the first time in a letter flanker task on diagnostic items (Experiment 1), and it was not observed when the design was altered to encourage learning and use of simple stimulus–response associations (Experiment 2). These findings support the generalisability of current theoretical accounts positing dual-mechanisms or multiple levels of control, and the associations as antagonists to control account positing that list-level control may be a last resort, to conflict tasks besides Stroop. List-level control was also observed in the arrow flanker task using a modified design (Experiment 3), which could be extended to other conflict tasks with limited sets of stimuli (four or fewer), although this solution is not entirely free of confounds.

scholarly journals Cognitive Control and Discourse Comprehension in Schizophrenia

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan A. Boudewyn ◽  
Cameron S. Carter ◽  
Tamara Y. Swaab
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Discourse Comprehension ◽  
General Control ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Conflicting Information ◽  
Control Functions ◽  
Wide Range

Cognitive deficits across a wide range of domains have been consistently observed in schizophrenia and are linked to poor functional outcome (Green, 1996; Carter, 2006). Language abnormalities are among the most salient and include disorganized speech as well as deficits in comprehension. In this review, we aim to evaluate impairments of language processing in schizophrenia in relation to a domain-general control deficit. We first provide an overview of language comprehension in the healthy human brain, stressing the role of cognitive control processes, especially during discourse comprehension. We then discuss cognitive control deficits in schizophrenia, before turning to evidence suggesting that schizophrenia patients are particularly impaired at processing meaningful discourse as a result of deficits in control functions. We conclude that domain-general control mechanisms are impaired in schizophrenia and that during language comprehension this is most likely to result in difficulties during the processing of discourse-level context, which involves integrating and maintaining multiple levels of meaning. Finally, we predict that language comprehension in schizophrenia patients will be most impaired during discourse processing. We further suggest that discourse comprehension problems in schizophrenia might be mitigated when conflicting information is absent and strong relations amongst individual words are present in the discourse context.

Irrelevant Stimulus Processing When Switching Between Tasks

2013 ◽  
Vol 221 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Wendt * ◽  
Andrea Kiesel * ◽  
Hanna Mathew ◽  
Aquiles Luna-Rodriguez ◽  
Thomas Jacobsen
Keyword(s):  
Irrelevant Stimulus ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
The Other ◽  
Task Switch ◽  
Task Repetition ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Current Task ◽  
Frequent Switching ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Frequent switching between two tasks afforded by the same stimuli is associated with between-task congruency effects, that is, relatively impaired performance when a stimulus affords different responses as compared to the same responses in both tasks. These congruency effects indicate some form of application of the stimulus-response (S-R) rules of the currently irrelevant task. Between-task congruency effects are usually enhanced on task switch trials compared with task repetition trials. Here we investigate whether this interaction reflects stronger proactive interference from the irrelevant task on switch trials or whether performance on switch trials is characterized by generally enhanced susceptibility to task-irrelevant information processing. To this end, we contrasted between-task congruency effects with interference exerted from flanker stimuli taken from the current task (Experiment 1) and from spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC; Experiment 2). In both experiments, between-task congruency effects were larger on switch trials than on repetition trials, whereas interference from the other source remained constant, thus demonstrating that switch trials are not characterized by generally increased distractibility.

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